Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline fuels climate of suspicion in Quebec

Enbridge Line 9 pipeline fuels climate of suspicion in Quebec

In many ways, Sainte-Justine-de-Newton is a typical Quebec village. A stone Catholic church anchors the main street, small businesses are scattered about and behind them, towards the nearby Ontario border, dairy farms speckle the landscape.

But in this town, population 973, its mayor, Patricia Domingos, is taking a stand against one of Canada’s biggest energy companies: Enbridge Inc.

Sainte-Justine is where Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline, a 762-mm-wide steel tube running underground from Sarnia, Ont. to Montreal, enters Quebec. Enbridge, Ms. Domingos claims, tried to win her community’s support for its current proposal to reverse the flow of that pipeline with a financial gift.

“The company tried to buy us,” she said in an interview, adding she has serious concerns about the pipeline’s ability to carry heavier crude at higher volumes under the proposal. “They wanted to hush us up. We didn’t take the money.”

The company says it did no such thing, that what the mayor calls a gift is actually part of a community investment outreach program that has existed for years. Other municipalities in Quebec and across Canada within a 20-kilometre radius of its pipeline right-of-way paths have taken advantage of the program gratefully. Enbridge says this year alone grants have gone to several Quebec communities, including $16,700 to Ste-Anne-des-Plaines for an articulated tracked vehicle; $15,000 to Grenville-sur-la-Rouge for an infrared camera; and $20,000 to Rigaud for first-responder breathing equipment.

As the National Energy Board sorts through who should be heard in its public review of the Line 9 project (the deadline for participation requests was Friday) the divergent views underscore the public relations challenge Enbridge will face in the weeks ahead – and how sensitive the issue of oil and gas has become in Canada’s French-speaking province.

Enbridge has been present in Quebec for decades. The pipeline at the centre of this debate has been in the ground for nearly 40 years. And yet, the company is staring at an entirely new dynamic as it seeks to maintain the local relationships and trust it has built: that of a cynical citizenry wary of big business, one willing to challenge development like never before.

Nearly three years ago, Enbridge sent Sainte-Justine a letter inviting the municipality to apply for funding under its community investment campaign, Ms. Domingos said. She said she and her councilors were aware at that point that the company wanted to reverse the flow of Line 9 in order to pump Alberta crude east.

Enbridge made a formal application for the project to the NEB in November of last year. It argues its plan would give Quebec access to a more reliable and cheaper source of oil.

“I read what they sent us and the first question that came to mind is ‘Why would you give me money?’,” Ms. Domingos said. “I’ve never seen someone in business give money without a reason. I talked it over with my councillors and they agreed that this smells bad. We decided not to apply. We don’t want to feel beholden to them when they need our support for the reversal because they gave us money.”

Ultimate approval for the Line 9 project lies with the federal regulator. But municipalities along the pipeline route will get a say.

“In Quebec, we understand that the political climate is very suspicious,” said Enbridge spokesman Eric Prud’Homme. “When I went on TV [to talk about this earlier this year], I was told in French by the host ‘Vous donnez des pôts de vins aux municipalités’ (You’re giving bribes to municipalities.) I’m sorry but this is not what we’re doing.”

What Enbridge is doing is spelled out relatively clearly on its website. Investing money in places where it has infrastructure, through six separate program areas including arts and culture and safety. In all, it spent $13-million on charitable, non-profit and community organizations in 2011.

One of the company’s major initiatives is called the Safe Community program, which provides financial support to hundreds of emergency response agencies across Canada and the United States so they can buy new equipment and get training. Started in 2008, it’s a way for Enbridge to help the people who would be the first on the scene should its pipeline fail and give back to the sometimes budget-challenged towns hosting its pipelines. The company invites different communities to apply for funding under the program each year.

Enbridge gave Mirabel, Que.’s firefighting service $10,000 towards the purchase of a $50,000 power generator, which now sits at the city’s emergency response headquarters. The head of the service, Denis Maurice, said it’s a godsend that will ensure the command centre won’t lack electricity as has occurred during major snow storms in the past.

Other municipal leaders are equally thankful.

“I don’t think Enbridge is buying us,” Saint-Placide, Que. mayor Denis Lavigne told Argent business network in a discussion about why his fire department took $15,000 from the company to buy training equipment. “Nothing is being bought. We took the money. If we had not taken it, the pipeline would still be in the ground.”

So how did we come to a point in Quebec in which some people see Enbridge’s effort as welcome community outreach and others dismiss it as grease money? How did being a good corporate citizen in the province suddenly become a hazard?

Certainly months of testimony at the Charbonneau commission into construction industry corruption has contributed to a renewed sense of public mistrust towards corporations and politicians. Industry and government mishandling of early shale gas exploration in the province has also increased people’s skepticism. Enbridge’s own experience with the Lakehead system spill in Michigan has shone a spotlight on pipeline risk.

“Business leaders here have never enjoyed the same good perception as in the rest of the country,” said pollster Jean-Marc Léger. “But these days, it’s more difficult than usual.”

Maybe. Or maybe Ms. Domingos, a trained financial controller, just wants to be beyond ethical reproach as she mounts her Line 9 offensive. She said she’s the only mayor she knows who has refused Enbridge money, but not the only who fears the consequences of the pipeline reversal.

“We can’t say ‘yes’ to Enbridge with our eyes closed,” she concluded. “People can say whatever they want, about me being paranoid or whatever. We’ll see in 10 years who was right.”